Bacon Barter: Man Pays for Cross-Country Trip Using Only Bacon as Currency

Travel can be expensive. One man is using a unique way to pay for a trip as a challenge. Pennsylvania comedian Josh Sankey is on a mission to make a cross-country road trip from New York to Los Angeles with no other currency but bacon.

Sankey isn't carrying any cash or credit cards as he makes his cross country trip. He is paying for everything from gas to lodging by using uncooked bacon as currency. He set off on his trip with 3,000 pounds of the popular meat and he seems to be getting good deals with it so far.

"I got two tickets to the Jets game for six bricks [of bacon]," Sankey told ABC. "They were pretty good seats, too."

Sankey's trip is part of a promotion for bacon producer Oscar Mayer. He is being followed by a film crew as they document Sankey's bacon barter.

Sankey, of New Castle, kicked off his trip in New York on Sept. 9. He has until Sept. 23 to make it to Los Angeles as he barters the bacon that he's towing in a trailer.

Sankey has made some interesting trades so far along his journey. He was able to get a taxi ride in NYC, Jets tickets, lodging at stranger's houses who he met through Twitter, homemade moonshine and wine, jumper cables, gas money and more. Sankey was even able to hire 29 college interns for 100 pounds of bacon in Lafayette, Ind. However the strangest trade was paying a fan with 200 bricks of bacon to get a bacon tattoo, which cost another 200 bricks of bacon.

Now Sankey is hoping to make even more impressive trades.

"Now I just really want to up the ante," he told ABC. "I mean, a guy got a permanent tattoo of bacon in exchange for bacon. How do you top that?"

Sankey is aiming for a stay in a penthouse with a hot tub or a helicopter ride. With the help of his 3,200 Twitter followers and the 735K Facebook followers on the Oscar Meyer page, Sankey's goals may be plausible as fans are willing to help him in just about any way.

So far, he has traveled to New York City, East Rutherford, N.J., Hagerstown, Md., Charleston, W.Va., Lesage, W.Va., Louisville, Ky., and Chicago, IL.

Fans can help Sankey arrange bacon barters by visiting the website BaconBarter.com or through Facebook and Twitter.